SUMMARY > The Presans Raout 2017 now has a confirmed venue, speakers, and a theme. > The theme, “Artificial Intelligence and the Smart City,” is the culmination of a long series of meditations on the world of open organizations. > The “Presans method” facilitates a fresh, unconventional perspective on this theme. > First presentation of Albert Asséraf and Aurélien Bellanger, our two principal speakers. Artificial Intelligences It seems the adjectives “smart” and “intelligent” began their migration toward the world of technological artifacts through the military territory occupied by bombs. Today, the word is applied to objects from telephones to vehicles, and even to processes like economic development (smart growth). All of these usages have one trait in common: they show

People like to celebrate the tradition they are a part of, even innovators. But they also like realtalk — especially innovators, the builders of new realities. The theme of the evening was disruption. You’ve heard of disruption, of course. You may even have read about it on this blog. The noise around this word is impossible to escape. But so is the core of reality that it captures. This duality was quite familiar to the Raout audience. All those that were present are industrial innovators, many among them clients of Presans. That is something we’re proud of. We picked this theme because we knew there was depth behind the noise. In order to uncover this depth, we gave it the

Friday October 7, PARIS — The urban halls of Remix Coworking once again rang with the clamor of the Presans Raout. Expectations had been set high by the previous edition of the Parisian industrial innovation event. Presans CEO Albert Meige managed once again to take everyone by surprise. Sure, the Presans team went in with a rough map of what was about to transpire. The Raout is our annual company gathering, a time of reckoning, a time when visions are shared and strategies discussed. In 2016, a snapshot picture of Presans would reveal the following facts: Presans is consolidating its position as a French industrial open innovation leader. The Fellows team is successfully renewing itself and expanding. The technology behind

Last Friday, Presans brought in an innovation heavyweight for its annual Raout. After being introduced by Albert Meige, CEO of Presans, and Philippe Lavialle, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Essonne, Airbus Group Chief Technical Officer Dr. Jean Botti delivered a series of powerful punches to the gut of corporate complacency. Airbus tripled its revenue and now employs 130 000 people, however, to quote from Botti’s presentation, “death is something that can happen to people in good health”. Indeed, it is a rough and tumbling world out there. Barbarians are coming for the established businesses, and they are coming fast. They ride the waves of digitalization in startup mode, even as their capitalization and cash assets number in the

Steep expectations. This is what Albert Meige is faced with as he contemplates next year’s Raout. Because last week’s 2015 edition, brought to you by Presans in partnership with the CCI Essonne and Techinnov, certainly did not just coast on the previous year’s success. Relocated to the Fall season, and to the urban halls of Remix Coworking in Paris, the French innovation event gained traction on every front. A hundred hand-picked guests decided this was the place to be on a Friday night, up 400 percent from last year. The reason they came may or may not have had something to do with Jean Botti’s conference. But there was more. Magician Remi Larrousse warmed up the room with an exceedingly clever demonstration